Six women’s sports and five men’s sports posted perfect scores, as the Greyhounds achieved a 96 percent cumulative graduation rate for all sports for the 2001-2004 cohorts that make up this year’s report.

“We would like to thank our academic support staff and coaches for their diligent work in supporting our student-athletes during their academic careers,” said Jim Paquette, assistant vice president and director of athletics at Loyola. “The continued commitment from so many members of the Loyola community has ensured the highest achievements possible for our student-athletes.”

The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The Graduation Success Rate also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport, which increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by more than 37 percent.

Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. Instead, the outgoing transfers are passed to the receiving institution’s Graduation Success Rate cohort.

The NCAA also calculates the federal graduation rate for student-athletes, which does not hold institutions accountable for transferstudent-athletes; it is the only rate by which to compare student-athletes to the general student body. In the 2004-05 first-year cohort, Loyola student-athletes graduated at a higher rate than their peers in the generalstudent body who enrolled at the same time.